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Redefining Medea's Magic and Power in Ovidian Poetry

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Redefining Medea's Magic and Power in Ovidian Poetry Redefining Medea’s Magic and Power in Ovidian Poetry Caelie McRobert Advisor: Professor John Lott Bachelor of Arts Vassar College May 2019 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to Dr. Britta Ager who first turned introduced me to ancient magic and to Dr. Maria Marsilio who has always supported me in my career as a classicist. Also to Professor Dozier and all of the help he has given me during my time at Vassar. And, of course, thank you to Professor Lott for reading so many drafts of this work. And, as always, thank you to my friends and family who have put up with so many years of piles of books and long rambles about Medea. 2 CONTENTS I. Introduction …………………………………………………………… 4 II. Chapter 1: The Caster …………………………………………………. 9 III. Chapter 2: The Love Spell ……………………………………………. 15 IV. Chapter 3: Compound Spells …………………………………………. 25 V. Chapter 4: Implications …………………………………………….…. 33 VI. Conclusion …………………………………………………………….. 39 VII. Bibliography…………………………………………………...………. 41 3 INTRODUCTION How do ancient male authors portray strong female characters? This is a question that has plagued classical scholars concerning such female figures as Circe, Dido, Cleopatra, and, of course, Medea. Not surprisingly, there is a vast array of scholarship dedicated to the study of Medea and Ovid. However, there appears to be little to no scholarship dedicated to understanding the spell that Medea is under, as presented in surviving Ovidian poetry. This paper aims to fill that gap. Specifically, this paper will argue that Jason is in fact the caster of the love spell on Medea, will define the exact style of love spell that he uses, and finally demonstrate that the spell mixes a traditional love spell with another form of binding spell commonly referred to as a spell used ‘for acquiring an assistant.’ The implications for this new interpretation provide a new view of Medea and impacts future scholarship. The story of Medea has been told and retold by many authors throughout the Ancient Greek and Roman periods. Although each author adds his/her own interpretation, overall the story follows a common narrative. In Jason’s quest to find the golden fleece, he comes to the island of Colchis, where the King offers Jason the fleece if he can complete an impossible task. In order to help him with the task, a love spell – cast by different characters in different sources – is placed on the Colchian king’s daughter, Medea. After using Medea’s magic to complete the task and capture the fleece, Jason flees on his ship, taking Medea with him. Ignoring his previous wife, Hypsipyle, Jason marries Medea, who then performs multiple spells and tasks for him, the severity and violence of which vary from version to version. Eventually, Medea and Jason separate. The story ends with Jason marrying another woman, Creusa, and Medea killing the children she had with Jason. All parts of this story vary depending on the version. 4 Ovid was one of the many authors who told the story of Jason and Medea. And indeed, Medea appears in many of his poems. She is a main character in his Metamorphoses VII, which begins just after Medea first meets and falls in love with Jason. Medea also is the supposed author of Ovid’s Heroides XII, which takes the form of a letter written from Medea to Jason after she leaves him. Similarly, she is the subject of Heroides VI, which Ovid writes as a letter to Jason from Hypsipyle, Jason’s first wife, whom he left for Medea. Medea further appears in the didactic poems of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria II and III and his Remedia Amoris. In these didactic poems, Medea is depicted as a cautionary tale against using spells to attain love. Finally, Ovid wrote an entire play called Medea, which was unfortunately lost. Given these numerous writings, one thing is clear: Ovid certainly had a fascination for Medea. Despite extensive scholarship focused on categorizing spells, and the spells aligned with Medea in particular, scholars tend to neglect the spell cast over Medea in Ovid. While the spells Ovid’s Medea performs have been discussed at length,1 2 the spell she is under is not. This gap in the literature is likely because the performance of this spell does not appear in Ovid’s surviving poetry. Therefore, this paper will attempt to define the love spell that Medea is under in Ovid by reconstructing it using Medea’s behavior, Ovid’s descriptions in the surviving poems, and historic spells. Even with the lack of scholarship regarding the spell, there is no question that Medea is under a love spell in Ovid’s poetry. Although Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII, the piece set earliest in Ovid’s timeline of Medea, starts just after this spell is traditionally cast on her 1 Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 143. 2 Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 69, 98. 5 (Ap.Rhod.Argon.3.1-294), Ovid’s Medea still laments in the opening monologue the unusual changes she is undergoing. Immediately, Medea grieves: “'frustra, Medea, repugnas: nescio quis deus obstat,' ait, 'mirumque, nisi hoc est, aut aliquid certe simile huic, quod amare vocatur … si possem, sanior essem! sed trahit invitam nova vis.” (“In vain, Medea, do you fight; I know not which god opposes you,” she said, “Is this or certainly something like this what they call to love... If only I could, I would be more sane! But this new power drags me unwilling.”) (Ov.Met.7 .11- 19). Almost from the first lines of the poem, Ovid has not only noted that Medea feels love for Jason, but that this love comes from an unnatural source. Thus, Ovid immediately shows his reader that true to the conventional storyline of Medea, his version of this character is also under a love spell. The question then is who cast the spell as, mentioned previously, it was not depicted in the surviving lines of Ovid. In addition, in order to fully understand the spell over Medea, this paper will use comparisons to historic magic. Ancient magic was a prevalent aspect of the ancient world. Slotted between ancient religion and ancient science,3 magic dealt with everything from cures for ailments4 to protection charms5 to aid in legal battles and sporting events.6 This paper in particular will deal with binding spells or defixiones spells, which were used to control or harm another human being. These spells all contain a caster, a victim, an object of the victim’s desire, and, in some cases, an intermediary. Often, but not always, the caster and the object of desire are 3 Eugene Tavenner, Studies in Magic from Latin Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1916), 5-12. 4 Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation; Including the Demotic Spells; Second Edition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986), PGM VII.193-96, 197-98, 199-201, 201-202, 211-12. 5 Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation; Including the Demotic Spells; Second Edition, PGM IV.1496- 1595. 6 Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation; Including the Demotic Spells; Second Edition, PGM VII. 370-73. 6 one and the same. An intermediary is often a deity or daemon or some sort, called upon by the caster to help enact the spell.7 Within this vast category of defixiones spells are love spells, which is the style of spell cast on the character of Medea in her traditional storyline. It also is important to note that Ovid himself had an extensive understanding of ancient magic. Medea is not where Ovid’s love of magic ends. Charles Segal (2002) details a number of places in Ovidian poetry in which Ovid refers to magic, which are often spells from Ancient Greece, in his writing.8 A knowledge of magic itself would not have been unusual for someone in this time period.9 As a concept that crosses religion and medicine, people would often buy spells from a local witch to help their crops grow, remedy an illness, or protect their children from harm with an amulet.10 11 Darker magic, such as knowledge of poisons, spells against the gods, and charms used to “bind” a victim were known by fewer people.12 However, as Segal (2002) points out, Ovid was well versed in these spells as well.13 The first chapter of this paper argues that in Ovid’s poetry Jason is the caster of the spell on Medea, and not by a god such as in Apollonius’ version (Ap.Rhod.Argon.3.1-294). Jason, as Ovid describes him, is unusually associated with witchcraft and the typical attributes of an ancient witch. Furthermore, Jason is directly connected to the spell that Medea is under, not only as the object of her affection but also in a way suggesting he has influence over it. The second chapter will provide details of the type of love spell Medea is under in Ovid’s poetry, given that this spell has not been defined in previous scholarship. Because no surviving 7 Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation; Including the Demotic Spells; Second Edition, PGM VII. 390-93. 8 Charles Segal, “Black and White Magic in Ovid's Metamorphoses: Passion, Love, and Art,” Arion 3rd Ser. 9, No. 3 (2002 2001): 1-34. 9 Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 3. 10 Tavenner, Studies in Magic from Latin Literature, 5-12. 11 Matthew Dickie, Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World (New York: Routledge, 2001): 1.
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